Tonight marks the final episode of The Defenders for the season. How likely is the CBS freshman series to be back next fall with season two?
The Defenders follows a pair of lawyers operating out of Las Vegas. They’ll do just about anything for their Sin City clients, often taking on cases no one else will touch, and try to keep their sanity while doing it. The TV show stars veterans Jerry O’Connell and Jim Belushi as well as Jurnee Smollett, Tanya Fischer, and Gillian Vigman.
For its premiere, the series dominated its timeslot with a 2.9 in the coveted 18-49 demographic and 12.2 million total viewers. That put the new show in first place in both categories and essentially doubled the performance of ABC’s now-cancelled, The Whole Truth.
Unfortunately, The Defenders’ audience slowly eroded over the course of the season and by January had hit a new low of a 1.5 rating in the demo and 6.81 million viewers. CBS switched the series to Fridays in February and, not surprisingly, the ratings got worse. On Fridays, Defenders has averaged a 1.3 demo rating and that’s worse than what now-cancelled Medium was getting in the same timeslot.
If you look at the season averages, The Defenders is one of CBS’ worst performers. Though the network has not officially cancelled it yet, it is hard to imagine that CBS execs would consider renewing it for a second season.
What do you think? Should The Defenders be cancelled? Why do you think the series hasn’t attracted a bigger audience?
Image courtesy CBS.
Fun show, combines comedy, fun characters, Veags with somewhat beleiveable legal scripts……….They should re-new it
I really enjoy the show & agree…it was fun to look forward to on Wednesday. When it moved to Friday, had to start watching it on demand, since I rarely watch anything on Friday nights. I really like the characters & think they work well together! I really, really hope there is a second season!!
Just started watching it after recording several episodes and i think its a GREAT show. good plots , great characters and chemistry. Please give it more time!
This would be one of the worst cancellations TV history. The show is smart, funny & dramatic, not to many shows have that going for them. Me and my wife look forward to “The Defenders” and even when it moved to the Friday deathzone for television shows, we watched it religiously. Belushi & O’Connell are hilarious together. To CBS, please find a good time slot for this show and market it, I promise you will not be disappointed.
I’ve watched every episode of The Defenders & love the show. Actually, my partner is really worried it’s going to get cancelled. I agree that this show has been very badly marketed by CBS. I understand why CBS moved the new Criminal Minds into the 10:00 PM slot on Wednesdays. However, ‘Harry’s Law’ with it’s loser scripts and boring plotlines has been given a somewhat protected Mondays night slot…what’s with that?
We love the Defenders! We got behind a little bit during the season but really enjoyed catching up on all of our DVR’d episodes. It is one of our favorite shows. Fridays makes it hard to catch but please don’t cancel it.
My husband and I are both very busy, but The Defenders is one of the few shows BOTH of us make time for! CBS, you have a real gem in this show. The chemistry of these characters is off the charts. Please, give the Defenders a decent time slot (Fridays, really) and market it right and I believe it can truly catch on. GO DEFENDERS!
I LOVE The Defenders – Jim and Jerry what a pair! Cancel something else and keep it on the air .
I love this show….PLEASE DO NOT CANCEL IT!!
With such fine veteran actors as Jerry and Jim, how could you EVEN THINK of canceling this show. You have murdered this show by changing times and days without giving it a chance to recover.
It is one of our favorite shows to watch AS A FAMILY which says something with the kind of reality shows that are shoved down our throats.
Come on Les Moonves, lighten up and give these fine actors a chance during this family hour.
I love this show!! Do not cancel it!! Go Defenders!
the show actually got better as the season went on – they should give it one more season and watch the niche audience grow even with a friday night slot
Cannot believe The Defenders is really cancelled. The Defenders is one of only three major network shows we watch. The other two being Harry’s Law and Big Bang Theory. Mainly we watch TNT which has new shows that hold your interest and one looks forward to seeing. Maybe TNT will pick-up The Defenders then we can just leave our TV on one station.
We didn’t watch The Defenders initially, because my wife saw the promo that they did for the new fall shows and thought it would be terrible. Eventually, we decided to sample it and found out that it was a stitch.
I think that somebody marketed this show to the wrong audience. That’s a shame, because we’re going to miss it.
I get a wonderful lift from the The Defenders. I loved having it on “hump day” evening for a mood boost. And even though I do not have time to watch TV on Friday night, I always squeezed it in anyway. I’m sure if the show is given a good time slot and is given at least some(!) marketing, it will catch on big time!